Modern Design Classics

Span Estates are considered modern design classics – fantastic interior space, embedded in the landscape and only using the highest grade materials. Eric Lyons the founder of Span worked for the founders of the world famous Bauhaus School (The absolute fathers of Modernism) and they bring the Bauhaus spirit to their houses.With large open interiors, great light and truth to the medium.

Eric Lyons (1912–1980) was a British designer and architect. He was famous for the development of forward-looking housing communities in England in the latter part of the 20th century. His partnership in Span Developments lead to the building of over 73 estates.

From 1936 to 1937 he worked for Walter Gropius and Maxwell Fry, in the short period that Gropius was in the UK. After World War II he spent a number of years working on various projects, designing flat-pack furniture for Tecta and entering competitions.

It was in 1948 that Span was founded, with Eric Lyons, Leslie Bilsby and Geoff Townsend who had resigned from the RIBA to become a developer (RIBA rules at the time prohibited architects being developers).

Span estates were typified by sharp Modernist designs with space, light and well-planned interiors, tempered with traditional features such as hung tiles and stock brick. Lavishly landscaped communal gardens were also a common feature of Lyons’ designs. Outside of his Span work, he developed a number of other schemes, such as public housing for World’s End in Chelsea, London and his final development in Vilamoura, Portugal. He was president of the RIBA from 1975 to 1977.